Zimbabwe (Partner: Dabane Trust)

About the region

The people of Gwanda District in Matebeleland South, Zimbabwe, are suffering from long-term water scarcity. In this region, rainfall is erratic and unpredictable. Only 13% of households have access to water within 15 minutes. When the rains come, communities lack the facilities to store rainwater, meaning they have less water available for drinking, washing and farming. During dry seasons, women and children can walk up to seven hours daily to collect water which is often dirty and unsafe. This wastes time that could be spent working or learning.

About our partner

Dabane Trust works with rural communities in the semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe to develop simple, appropriate and sustainable water abstraction and food production systems. An innovative organisation, one of Dabane’s successes was developing a new sustainable type of handpump, the Rowa, that makes water abstraction more efficient than other designs.

How we're working together

Since 2014, Excellent and Dabane have worked together to enable the construction of 6 sand dams in southern Zimbabwe.

Dabane is particularly interested in learning about ASDF’s techniques in design and construction - which can reduce sand dam construction time by months.

"Dabane has made its name by getting water out of sand rivers. Our next step is to ensure we don't over abstract. The answer to that, especially upstream, is sand dams. Without a doubt."

Latest

Excellent Development supports communities in drylands around the world to transform their own lives with sand dams and climate-smart agriculture; empowering them to achieve lifelong access to water and food.
Please donate what you can today to help the Kyekuyu self-help group in southeast Kenya and their community (whose sand dam is being built with the support of Jersey Overseas Aid), as well as other dryland farmers to transform their own lives through climate-smart agriculture.

When water supplies are low, drastic measures are often turned to in efforts to collect it. The construction of a water tank in Utini Girls Secondary School in southeast Kenya has helped to lift this burden, according to testimony from members of the school community.

Thank you to all to tuned in to our BBC Radio 4 to hear our sand dam expedition volunteer, Sarah Parker, speak about the impact of sand dams and how they're helping farmers like Josephine to transform their lives.

Related

Excellent Development and ASDF have a strategic partnership based on shared values and philosophy. Together we have committed to community-led sustainable development and the global promotion of sand dam technology in drylands.

Excellent Development and Lekurruki Conservation Trust have enabled the construction of several sand dams in the Northern Rangelands of northern Kenya, benefiting thousands of lives and many species of wildlife.

In partnership with Excellent, the Christian Council of Mozambique is currently building multiple sand dams per year in Tete, providing water security to thousands with all the additional benefits that comes with having access to a constant supply of water.

Most read

Read about our plan to directly support other organisations to build sand dams, in turn, realising our vision to support millions of the world’s poorest people by helping them to transform their own lives through water and soil conservation in drylands.